Boulder County Public Health on Thursday announced it will not administer the state’s new “5 Star Certification Program” but will participate in any community effort to do so.
The program, announced this week by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, encourages businesses to “implement safety measures beyond what is already required by public health orders and guidelines that will help slow the spread of COVID-19, and in doing so, be able to accelerate their reopening.”
“Because public health agencies are being asked to achieve demanding and historic objectives with a high burden of contact tracing and disease control, and to distribute vaccine at a level never before required in such a short amount of time, the program will not be administered or coordinated by Boulder County Public Health,” the health department announced in a Thursday news release. “If the Boulder County community chooses to move forward with the program, Boulder County Public Health will participate as a member of the administrative committee, but another entity would organize and be responsible for the program.”
The health department is working with the Boulder Chamber and other county economic organizations to determine how “best to coordinate establishing an administrative committee that could determine how best to implement the program in Boulder County,” according to the release.
“We are extremely aware that many of our businesses are hanging by a thread and others have had to close. This program is being launched at a challenging time when we are concerned about increased cases associated with gatherings with the winter holiday, prior to kids going back to school in person, and certainly a grave concern about what may happen on New Year’s Eve,” Boulder County Public Health stated in the release. “If folks don’t gather over the holidays, and we don’t see a spike in new cases, it will give businesses in our county a chance to launch the program as long as cases and hospitalizations continue to decline and our percent positivity rate remains below 10%.”
The program requires a two-week sustained decline in cases, a positivity percentage lower than 10% or is demonstrably improving over the past two weeks, that fewer than 90% of intensive care unit beds are in use, and steady or declining regional hospitalizations, according to the health department.
The next step in developing the program locally is to create an administrative committee that includes stakeholders such as local chambers of commerce, nonprofits, local leaders and industry members, along with a staff member from Boulder County Public Health, according to the release. The committee will need to identify funding for the program, determine how compliance and enforcement will be conducted, and then apply to CDPHE, according to the release.
Local businesses interested in the certification program should watch for information from or contact their chambers of commerce, Boulder County Public Health stated.
John Tayer, Boulder Chamber president and CEO, in the release stated, “We are thankful for the efforts of Boulder County Public Health in the exploration of a business certification program amidst all their other COVID-19 related responsibilities. They recognize that our small businesses are struggling significantly due to ongoing operations restrictions. Programs like this can be a critical lifeline, helping our businesses do their business while protecting public health.”
As of Thursday morning, 13,378 county residents had tested positive or were considered probable for the virus and 389 people were hospitalized with the virus, according to Boulder County Public Health data. There have been 160 deaths of people with COVID, according to the county.
Boulder County's five-day average of new cases was 103.4 on Dec. 9, according to Dec. 14 data from Boulder County Public Health.
For more information about COVID in Boulder County, including case totals, hospitalization and trends, click here.
